


Almighty

by Kallahan



Series: The Chronicler's Tales [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:28:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29191572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kallahan/pseuds/Kallahan
Series: The Chronicler's Tales [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869529





	Almighty

.........Tayo.........

I can only tell Tayo’s tale as I knew him, and I knew him as a friend. We fought the enemies of the light, guardians in the crucible, and cumulatively had enough end-of-day drinks together to knock a Wormgod on its ass. But to know Tayo, even as a friend, was to know him as a soldier, they were one and the same. I first met him during the Red War. He was stripped of his light like everyone else, but this didn’t hold him back. He worked with the other survivors. He erected bulwarks and ramparts, trained civilians in weaponry, and when the time came to retake the city he fought with just as much lead and blood as his entire platoon combined. 

I don’t know where he was before then, I can’t even say I know how long he had lived as a risen. He didn’t talk much about his past. You see, despite being a guardian Tayo never thought of himself as special. When he was commended for his efforts during the War, risking his life knowing it could have been his last, he would simply tell you it was “just what a guardian ought to do”, and quickly point out that there were plenty of guardians that did the same. This attitude didn’t change when the hollow barrel of the Almighty moved its gaze from the sun to our last city. 

I wasn’t in his fireteam during the war, so I scantly had the chance to see him at work. When the warmind bunkers swung open from the dust and seraph towers rose from the earth, ready to be charged and armed, Tayo transformed into a pillar of focus and determination. He took up his tractor cannon and personally defended the warmind’s preparations day and night for two entire weeks, that man was a machine. But I hadn’t yet even realized just how determined he was.

Weeks later I was passing through the EDZ on patrol for enemy hiding spots when I happened upon him defending a tower, Tractor Cannon still mounted on his arm like I had seen it weeks before, surrounded by the corpses of at least one-hundred cabal. But now, he was alone. 

He pulled his shield from a fresh split in a limp Colossus’ skull as I approached, “Getting ready for the Guardian Games a bit early?” he asked me, referring to my garb. 

“Getting ready?” I said to him, “Tayo, they’re nearly done.” 

The silence that would have followed was filled with the rustling of leaves against rusted metal, and the hum of golden-age hydraulics. He just looked at me. I wish I could tell what he had been thinking in that moment, wish I could have seen past his gel-stained helm, and known how this information impacted him. But all I was given was a nod, he wished me luck, and just like that he returned to his post in front of that damn tower. 

**..........Uncertainty........**

More weeks passed, and I began to feel a bit of unease every time I looked up at the skies no matter where in the system I was. The warmind had just put out a call for guardians to rally at his towers all at once and fill the skies with his artillery. The guardians heeded, though with some hesitance. It is with mixed feelings that I admit I was among them. Inevitably this lead me back to Tayo, this time on IO. 

The vex systems on IO had a particular dislike of the Warmind’s towers, the surges of arc energy they gave off must have had them thinking of the Warmind as a rowdy neighbor blasting rock n’ roll (though that is far from Rasputin’s tastes), and so every time the tower flipped on the Vex would appear to try and silence the ruckus. This, while inconvenient, gave us something the other towers I had defended did not have; predictability. they appeared the second it lit up like brass clockwork, and it meant between launches we were able to let our guards down. 

Even during these breaks all Tayo could do was prepare for the next onslaught, and I found myself wondering if he kept his eyes his guns because he too felt that same sinking feeling every time he saw the sky.

“This is a lot of ordinance just to blow up one thing” I say, triple checking that my arsenal was prepared.

He stopped what he was doing, his gaze still fixed down at his gun, his hand holding a shell halfway loaded into the barrel of a shotgun.

“Maybe” he responded, and pushed the shell the rest of the way in with a _click_. “The city has more threats to it than just one ship.” 

“So you trust Rasputin?” I prodded. 

“Warminds were made to protect humanity” he had said it like it was a reflex. 

“That isn’t what I asked.” I told him.  
  
“But its the answer to your question” he says, standing and cocking his shotgun. “Humanity built the Warmind, and the Warmind protects humanity. I trust humanity, so I trust the Warmind to protect us. Humanity protects humanity, that’s the way it is.” 

"Is Rasputin really humanity though?" just saying the words had let the sky's fear sink in again, twisting my innards into anxious knots. 

He looked at me, really looked at me. IO's light filtered through his visor just enough for me to see his eyes. They were...soft. Not the determined gaze of the Tayo I had expected to see behind that glass.

"All we can really do now is hope. Hope that Rasputin is what we want him to be, hope that he's enough to help fight the things that want us gone, and if he isn't any of that...." he paused for a moment "...well, I guess if he isn't then I'll just have to destroy that ship myself." 

Before I could respond to him, the bell rung again, the towers lifted through the pale green earth, and we were back in motion. 

**..........Answers and Questions........**

By the end of the rally more than enough orbital death waited behind our skies, and most guardians returned to their frustrating anticipation as the Almighty drew ever closer. Tayo asked me to meet him on the moon, but didn’t tell me why. The first thing I noticed as I found him waiting by the lunar bunker was his armor. It was coated in a fresh and untouched glossy red. At the time I thought it was to try and impress, but now I wonder if it was out of fearful respect; the same way someone might wear finery in the presence of a king. 

The second thing I noticed though was the object he held in his hand. In his fingers he kept turning over a diamond shape hunk of metal, short wiry tendrils hanging off and ripped at the edges. I recognized it almost immediately. It was SIVA. 

“Where’d you find that?” I asked. No pleasantries and no ‘hello’. Looking back I regret that, wish I’d just greeted him like a friend. The sight of SIVA tends to make one a bit on edge.

“Iron Temple. And its older than Sepiks. A lot older.” 

I wasn’t there, but a SIVA-suped Servitor nearly cracked open the Iron Temple on Felwinter’s Peak a few years back before running off. The way he called it by name though, was he there? 

“So, we here because of the SIVA then?” . 

“Maybe. Anna said.....well not to sound full of myself, but she said Rasputin watched me. We followed the trail, Rasputin is about as forward as an iron wall, but it almost seems like he wants to meet with me, as odd as that sounds.” 

I rub my hand on he back of my helmet nervously, “well, that does sound odd”, but I had to ask the question weighing on me. “So, why am I here then?” 

“I....” he trailed off, his hand scratched at a seam on his helm like it was trying to flip a switch. “....I spent a lot of time out there defending the systems below our feet. A lot of it was alone, more than I’d care to admit. But besting cabal and breaking vex are easy. I don’t know what we’re going to find down there.” he looked towards the bunker door, “but whatever it is, I know I’d rather not be alone to face it.” 

My head sparked with a million questions, a warmind watching him? And what does this have to do with the SIVA? But I could tell whatever questions I had, he had as well. And we weren’t going to get them answered standing out here. 

“Alright. Lets find out what Rasputin has to say.” 

I like to think he smiled at me behind his helmet. “Good, lets not keep an old man waiting.” 

**.........Silence.........**

Twenty-one days later, it was finally time. Rasputin announced that the Almighty, now casting its full shadow over the city, would be destroyed for good. I felt the entire city breathe a collective sigh of relief. 

I took a spot beside Tayo to watch, but neither of us said anything to each other. We weren't the same since we went down into that bunker, since we learned the truth about Rasputin's lies. So in silence we watched the orange lines in the distance slowly bombard and tear away at the once-mighty ship. 

Suddenly, Tayo sat up from his position leaning over the guardrails, and he turned to me. Before I could say anything, he held out the shotgun to me, the one the old man gave him on the moon that day. I saw in his demeanor something I wasn't sure I'd see again, determination. So I lifted the gleaming bronze weapon from his hands, and gave him a nod expecting one in return. Instead I received a hug that nearly broke my back. After a few seconds he released me, and wordlessly left for the hangar. I broke my silence and called after him, but he just kept walking. I didn’t follow. His mind was set, wherever he was going there was no changing course now. 

So, I stayed and watched, and even though I was alone I hoped. It was all I could do. 

**.........Almighty.........**

It was hard to look at the aftermath and still think of this as a victory. Our tower had taken a few hits, chunks of cement blown away near Zavala’s outpost, not to mention the damage to the city and lost civilians not yet accounted for. As I looked at the damage I couldn’t help but think, maybe this is what Rasputin’s protection will always look like. 

As for Tayo, well its just a rumor, but there are many people that swear that Rasputin’s artillery didn’t deal the final blow to the Almighty. As the rumor goes, the last missile to hit it wasn’t orange at all.

It was blue. 


End file.
